This invention relates to a cylinder lock with interchangeable key.
Cylinder locks with interchangeable key are already known, which for carrying out the change of the key require the use of a further auxiliary change key, or of a key partially different from that which previously served to actuate the lock, or even of another change device different from a key. In these locks, the operation of changing the key is connected with a certain difficulty, and this makes them less acceptable to the users; moreover, such locks are not capable of being coupled with many different kinds of keys, and therefore they can be used only with a limited number of possible different keys, and this reduces their safety. Their overall dimensions do not correspond to those of the usual locks, so that they can hardly substitute the already existing normal locks. Furthermore, their construction is delicate and can hardly be mechanized.
The object of this invention is to provide a cylinder lock of the type having an interchangeable key, i.e. a lock which allows, for safety reasons, to uncouple a key from the respective lock and to differently codify the lock in order to make it correspond to a different key, in which lock the operations required for changing the key are of maximum simplicity and, therefore, within anybody's capacity; and in which it is possible to use a great number of different keys, i.e. all those keys which can be manufactured for such lock depending on the configuration and the number of the movable elements provided in the lock.
It is also an object of the invention to allow subjecting a number of cylinder locks to a single key for opening, as well as to allow easy substitution of cylinder locks of usual industrial production by locks with interchangeable key.